ALWAYS REMEMBER–JESUS DOES NOT CONDEMN US FOR OUR SINS & FAILURES WHEN WE COME TO HIM (WFM-50)

Listening to the Master. This morning, we will read one of the most touching passages of the Scriptures to anyone who has sinned; that should include all of us. These inspired words from God’s through His Spirit written by John capture one of the most explicit scenes of how Jesus looks upon sinners. You remember the scene:

It’s early morning, and the sun is already warming the air as it glistens off the marble and gold of Herod’s Temple.

Jesus who had no place of His own comes into the Temple from across the Kidron, He had slept with the Twelve on the Mount of Olives probably in the common area known as the Cave of Gethsemane where anyone could stay free of charge near those olive presses.

He finds a place on the steps of the courtyard to sit and teach many eager followers who gather to listen and learn. He starts to open His mouth as a group of religious leaders comes clamorously across the great colonnade. They march up to where Jesus sat and thrust contemptuously forward a nameless woman who falls to the ground face down and trembling before Jesus.

Then, with eyes full of hatred, they spew out the venom of their accusations. With knuckles white with their grip, they hold rocks for stoning. With hearts as hard as those stones, they coldly demand immediate death by crushing this sinful, adulterous woman. In a pitiful heap, the woman in torn clothing, tangled hair, and trembling shoulders never looks. Dirt from the streets mingles with tears from her eyes and drips to the Temple pavement as she refuses to even lift her head before the accusers, the Master, and the crowds.

Looking up, Jesus casts His gaze at the woman with eyes filled with compassion, then at the religious leaders with eyes of fiery, righteous indignation. With calmness and boldness, unmoved by the hatred and anger of the well-known and recognized men who stood panting with hatred before Him, Jesus stands, walks down the steps, and stoops down to His knees on the courtyard between the accusers and the accused. With every eye upon Him, Jesus begins to write on the ground, tracing His fingers over the dust on the pavement.

At first, the men continue to shout the accusations and demand she be stoned, waving their rocks menacingly in the air as they demand a response from Jesus. But He speaks not a word; acting as if He didn’t even hear them, He continues writing. As he writes, He pauses and looks up directly into the eyes of the circle of accusers, one by one.

Then it begins to happen, shouts slowly die out, voices fall to mutters, and their eyes become riveted to the ground as Jesus writes an indictment against each accuser. God the Son marks their iniquities, as He shall on Judgment Day. The circle of robed and bearded men begins to change. Looking at the eldest of the accusers with his white hair and manicured hands, Jesus writes COVETOUS at his feet and, with His piercing eyes, looks directly into that man’s soul. With a thud, the rock he held so tightly falls to the ground as he turns and rushes away with downward eyes.

Then Jesus, looking up into the faces of the other men standing in the circle and steadily with eyes that never blink–speaks to them: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

Moving now to the feet of the next oldest accuser, Jesus writes out his besetting sin. Up and down, Christ’s finger moves, and the men tremble one by one. Their eyes are painfully glued on the man who reads their hearts like a billboard and writes their sin so devastatingly in the crowd’s sight. Seeing into their souls that moving finger writes on-
Idolater
Liar
Drunkard
Murderer
Adulterer

Finally, the last stone falls, the final accuser ashamedly hurries away, and all is silent as Christ’s finger stops.

The quietness is filled with only one sound, the deep sobs of the accused woman.
(WFM-50; 020526AM)

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